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The other day, @iDharma on Twitter offered a suggestion of writing an article. "It would be cool to hear how others explain Zen (& Buddhism generally) to non-Buddhists, i.e. how to explain it w/o jargon." @Quieddora also encouraged something around "Zen basics." I agree. There's a lot of buzz words thrown around that are frequently misunderstood.

Please keep in mind, I'm sharing this with you as a Lay-Ordained Rinzai Zen Buddhist, based on my experiences and what I have learned from my Teachers, those being Eido Tai Shimano Roshi and Genjo Marinello Osho, He is Eido Roshi's Dharma Heir... (I know more strange word, but I will get to all that in time).

Probably the best piece of "jargon," to start with is the word "Zen." Frequently I hear Zen translated as "meditation." In my gut whenever people used that expression, It didn't seem right, but I didn't know why. But one day while living at a Monastery, I heard Eido Roshi speaking and he said, "Zen better said or put means Unification. Unify your Heart. Unify Everything."

POW! Something was put in place. It wasn't just on an "intellectual level," but in my gut or emotionally. That was a clear moment for me, when there was no gaps, no distance, no time. Everything just "felt," a-okay. This unification is not something that I've been able to grasp or hold on to with my so-called, "intellect." This unification was going on somewhere else within me, but more on that later.

When I looked within myself, I noticed that I didn't consistently feel unified with anything. As a matter of fact, I felt terribly separate. Within that feeling of separation, all of the sudden I felt physically ill. What was I "really," connected to? I could tell you intellectually, but not emotionally... experientially... no, no, no.

The other term I'll mention today is "Zazen." Let's translate that as "Sitting in Unification." What was I supposed to unify myself with? For me it started at my first "Introduction to Zen," weekend, that was actually at Rochester Zen Center, a year or so before which was hosted by Bodhin Kjolhede then Sensei (He is now a Roshi). His instruction was, "Count one to ten, starting with the inhalation. When you lose the count... and You will, don't think about how it happened, just go directly back to one. When you get to ten, return to one and repeat. No matter what happens [in Your life], always just come back to one."

I thought of myself as a pretty smart guy, but having the capacity to "Sit in Unification," was (and still is at times) incredibly difficult. I sat on a cushion and my mind was going in every direction at the same time. After about a day or two, I made it to ten, once. My mind really was like a wild monkey or tiger like the books said. It was no longer theoretical is my personal. Yikes! Well that's not what I expected. despite this discouragement, what kept me coming back was, I had a personal question that I wanted answered. The question? "What happens when I die?"

In learning Zazen at the Monastery with Eido Roshi, the practice was on an entirely different rhythm and scale. I sometimes call my time there as Buddha Bootcamp, not becuase it was harsh, but more of the relentless focus. It's like you were with a team, scaling Mount Everest. Everything was in focus. Everything Mattered. It was pretty intense. Most people have romantic ideas of what it's like to be in a monastery and there's no romance at all. In fact in can be pretty muddy on a lot of different levels.

Back then a sit could be anywhere form 45-60 minutes. Explaining, Eido Roshi said, "You have the 10-15 minutes when your mind is settling in. Then you have the 10-15 minutes anticipating when the sit will end. So if you sit for 45 minutes, You might be lucky if you get 15 minutes of actual (focused) Zazen in. That cut explanation through the crap on why the sits were those particular time frames.

On a practical note, Eido Roshi gave specific instructions for Zazen. Though if You needed to use a chair to do Zazen, he would allow for this, but other alternatives needed to be exhausted first. These alternatives come in various forms a sitting, illustrated here. And yes I know they use the words, "how to meditate,at the top of the page. I thought I told you to ignore that word.

Genjo Osho is also on the same mind on this. There are some interesting benefit of this, but you have to try them out to know. This is something better lived through than explained. In my past, I had a serious surfing injury that has cause me severe pain. This should not be over looked and I've made adjustments in my sitting when I need to, but at the same time, sometimes the pain has nothing to do with the body, it has to do with the state of ones mind.

During a particular sit, I was having a massive amount of pain. I felt hopeless. I couldn't get my mind to center on anything other than endless distraction. The thought of attaining any "unification," was about as likely as my being voted President of the United States. But during that sit, Seigan Fudo Ed Glassing, saw my struggling and my pain. I must have looked really uncomfortable, as I faced the wall (what a metaphor). I couldn't sit still at all. Standing behind me, he bent over and whispered in my ear, "The pain is not Yours," and walked away.

That verbal nudge, did something. All of the pain and distraction drained from me, like a plug being pulled from a tub full of water. As it drained, one became the whole universe, two became the whole universe, three became the whole universe, four.... There was no problem. For a time afterward, I didn't experience any pain in sitting at all. That in and of itself was a powerful lesson in the mind can do to the body.

Genjo Osho has a rather "Inside baseball," instruction on practicing Zazen. It's called "Developing Interior Mastery." It's one of the few, "This is exactly what I do with my mind," when I'm on the cushion moments. Very interesting and very useful.

This is where I'll stop for today and pick up on this tomorrow. If you have your own experiences or thoughts, please use the comments section. Many could benefit from your experiences. Please do not use hypotheticals, just what your experiences have been with "Zen" or "Zazen." Being speculative can just drive use in circles. By the way, if and when you comment, an "ID" or "Login" is not required. Just scroll down.

In Gratitude,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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